St. Louis, MO: Purina Chow Headquarters

(3D Satellite)

Joe Sonderman posted four photos with the comment: "Route 66 St. Louis Style Post #66

Purina Mills founder William Danforth used a checkerboard to symbolize his belief in balancing ones physical, social, mental, and religious lives. His feed company became Ralston-Purina in 1902, after he began making cereal with Webster Edgerly, founder of the Ralstonism health movement. The headquarters of Ralston-Purina became famous as Checkerboard Square. The firm merged with Nestle in December 2001."

Missouri's Historic Highways shared

1

2

3

4

It appears that some of the old buildings are still standing.

3D Satellite

Since I study old wood grain elevators, sometimes I'll still see the Purina checkerboard pattern on the grain elevator. Some examples:

Zanesville, OH

Neponset, IL

Wilson, NC

Note the logo on the right side of the building.

Industry, IL

There are two logos on the building on the right side of this view.

Pierce, NE

Just the day after I published these notes, I came across two more Purina feed mills.

Nashville, TN, this plant receives hopper and tank railcars and produces packaged feed.

Leon, IA, this plant produces bulk feed.

They no longer do livestock feed, just pet food. But their website talks about just dogs and cats. I thought I saw an interior photo of a farm supply store that had Purina bags for chickens, horses, rabbits, etc.